CBD Oil's Many Benefits

We look at studies covering pain relief, anxiety, depression, addictions, diabetes, arthritis, and more

Author

The 10almonds Team
March 20, 2023

❝Before you criticize someone you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.❞

~ Frieda Norris

It’s Research Review Monday here at 10almonds, and we’re going to be looking at what the science has to say about CBD oil. In today’s edition:

  • The perfect productivity technique?

  • CBD oil’s many benefits

    • Legal note

    • CBD for pain relief

    • CBD for anxiety/depression

    • CBD for treating opioid addiction

    • And more (diabetes, neurological disorders, arthritis)

  • The Kindness Method (an all-purpose habit-changer)

👀 WATCH AND LEARN

The Perfect Productivity Technique?

What's the best productivity strategy out there?

  • Maybe it’s using the Pomodoro method?

  • Or maybe what's most important is eating that frog first? Is it time-blocking?

  • Is it about how you manage your to-do lists?

Ultimately, the best productivity strategy is the one that is right for you, and for that challenge, at that time.

Whatever your workload, probably you don’t have to deal with everything everywhere all at once!

🧪 MAIN FEATURE

CBD Oil: What Does The Science Say?

CBD and THC are both derived from the hemp or cannabis plant, but only the latter has euphoriant psychoactive effects, i.e., will get you high. We’re writing here about CBD derived from hemp and not containing THC (thus, will not get you high).

Laws and regulations differ far too much from place to place for us to try to advise here, so please check your own local laws and regulations. And also, while you’re at it, with your doctor and/or pharmacist.

As ever, this newsletter is for purposes of education and enjoyment, and does not constitute any kind of legal (or medical) advice.

With that in mind, onwards to today’s research review…

CBD for Pain Relief

CBD has been popularly touted as a pain relief panacea, and there are a lot of pop-science articles out there "debunking" this, but...

The science seems to back it up. We couldn't find studies refuting the claim (of CBD as a viable pain relief option). We did, however, find research showing it was good against:

Note that that latter (itself a research review, not a single study, hence covering a lot of bases) describes it matter-of-factly, with no caveats or weasel-words, as:

"CBD, a non-euphoriant, anti-inflammatory analgesic with CB1 receptor antagonist and endocannabinoid modulating effects"

As a quick note: all of the above is about the topical use of CBD oil, not any kind of ingestion

CBD for Anxiety/Depression

There's a well-cited study with what honestly we think was a bit of a small sample size, but compelling results within that:

A study published in the Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry tested the anxiety levels of 57 men in a simulated public speaking test.

Compared to placebo...

  • Those who received 300mg of CBD experienced significantly reduced anxiety during the test.

  • Those who received either 150mg or 600mg of CBD experienced more anxiety during the test than the 300mg group

  • This means there's a sweet spot to the dosage

There was also a clinical study that found CBD to have anti-depressant effects.

The methodology was a lot more robust, but the subjects were mice. We can’t have everything in one study, apparently! There is probably a paucity of human volunteers to have their brain slices looked at after tests, though.

Anyway, what makes this study interesting is that it measured quite an assortment of biological markers in the brain, and found that the CBD had a similar physiological effect to the antidepressant imipramine.

CBD for Treating Opioid Addiction

There are a lot of studies for this, both animal and human, but we’d like to put the spotlight on a human study (with the participation of heroin users) that found:

❝Within one week, CBD significantly reduced cravings, anxiety, resting heart rate, and salivary cortisol levels. No serious adverse effects were found.❞

This is groundbreaking because the very thing about heroin is that it's so addictive and the body rapidly needs more and more of it. You might think "duh", but most people don't realize this part:

Heroin is attractive because it offers (and delivers) an immediate guaranteed "downer", instant relaxation... with none of the bad side effects of, for example, alcohol. No nausea, no hangover, nothing.

The problem is that the body gets tolerant to heroin very quickly, meaning your doses need to get bigger and more frequent to have the same effect.

Before you know it, what seemed like an affordable "self-medication for a stressful life" is very much out of control! Many doctors have personally found this out the hard way.

So, it's ruinous:

  • first to your financial health, as the costs rapidly spiral

  • then to your physical health, as you either suffer from withdrawal or eventually overdose

Consequently, heroin is an incredibly easy drug to get hooked onto, and incredibly difficult to get back off.

So CBD offering relief is really a game-changer.

And more...

CBD has been well-studied and found to be effective for a lot of things, more than we could hope to cover in a single edition here.

Some further reading that may interest you includes:

Let us know if there’s any of these (or other) conditions you’d like us to look more into the CBD-related research for, because there’s a lot! You can always hit reply to any of our emails, or use the feedback widget at the bottom 😎

Read (and shop, if you want and it’s permitted where you are):

📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW

The Kindness Method - by Shahroo Izadi

Shahroo Izadi here covers everything from alcohol addiction to procrastination to weight loss. It's a catch-all handbook for changing your habits—in general, and/or in whatever area of your life you most feel you want or need to.

She herself went from yo-yo dieting to a stable healthy lifestyle, and wants to share with us how she did it. So she took what worked for her, organized and dilstilled it, and named it "the kindness method", which...

  • promotes positivity not in a "head in the sand" sense but rather: you have strengths, let's find them and use them

  • offers many exploratory exercises to help you figure out what's actually going to be best for you

  • plans support in advance—you're going to be your own greatest ally here

Basically it's about:

  • being kind to yourself rather than setting yourself up to fail, and "judging a fish by how well it can climb a tree"

  • being kind to yourself by being compassionate towards your past self and moving on with lessons learned

  • being kind to yourself by getting things in order for your future self, because you need to treat your future self like a loved one

In fact, why not buy a copy of this book as a gift for your future self?

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Wishing you the best in life every day,

The 10almonds Team